Media Centre - IARC NEWS

After an 18-month international competitive bidding process for the design and construction of the “Nouveau Centre” (combined design-build contract) for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the winning team has been selected by the Métropole de Lyon. The team consists of Demathieu Bard (general contractor), Art&Build (architects), Unanime (architects), WSP (design engineering company), and Inddigo (sustainable development engineering company). The project is managed by the Métropole de Lyon and funded by the French government, the Métropole de Lyon, the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and the Ville de Lyon.

In 2018, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will amend the Preamble to the IARC Monographs. The Preamble describes the principles and procedures used in developing IARC Monographs, including the scientific criteria that guide the evaluations. The Preamble is updated periodically. The objective of this update is to reflect scientific developments and procedural changes that have occurred since the Preamble was last amended, in 2006.

Each year, more than 200 000 children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer. Although in high-income countries about 80% of children with cancer survive for at least 5 years after the diagnosis, this percentage is much lower for patients in low-resource settings. Raising awareness, notably among medical professionals in countries with many competing public health needs, is indispensable to promote early diagnosis and access to adapted treatment. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) works closely with cancer registries and partners around the world to generate and provide global data, which are essential for developing and monitoring efficient strategies of early detection and care for children with cancer.

Every year on World Cancer Day (4 February), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) support the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in promoting ways to reduce the global burden of cancer.

To mark World Cancer Day 2018, IARC Director Dr Christopher Wild explains how research plays a key role in helping to improve our understanding of what causes cancer as well as in defining the best ways to prevent and control the disease.

To mark World Cancer Day 2018, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is pleased to welcome Professor Daniel R. Fagin to present the 5th IARC Cancer and Society Lecture. Professor Fagin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a professor at New York University, and author of the bestselling book Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation. In his talk, “From Toms River to Today: Science, Spin and Storytelling in Dark Times”, Professor Fagin explores how researchers, clinicians, policy-makers, and the media can make progress only by maximizing transparency, leveraging networks, prioritizing trust-building, and, most importantly, communicating effectively.

A policy review published today in The Lancet Oncology as part of the journal’s Global Oncology series presents the activities of the IARC Hub for Cancer Registration in Northern Africa, Central and Western Asia within the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR, http://gicr.iarc.fr/). The IARC authors, together with the Hub Principal Investigator and Advisory Committee members from the region, advocate tailored approaches given the rapidly changing cancer profiles and the challenges faced at the national level. The review provides an overview of the activities regionally and nationally, and documents how registries are informing cancer control policies that can curb the increasing cancer burden across the region.

A new study published today in the journal Cancer Epidemiology evaluates for the first time the cost of productivity lost due to premature cancer deaths in several major emerging economies. Led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in partnership with leading cancer research institutions in these countries, the study shows that the productivity loss in Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa, collectively known as the BRICS countries, reached $46.3 billion in 2012.

Cervical cancer is a serious public health problem worldwide. More than 520 000 new cases of cervical cancer and nearly 250 000 deaths occur per year, and 90% of the cases occur in low- and middle-income countries. Cervical screening with cytology includes frequent smears and follow-up visits, a model too complex for women with limited access to care. The ESTAMPA study is an international research project in Latin America led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to evaluate approaches to organized human papillomavirus (HPV)-based cervical screening and reduce cervical cancer mortality in the region.

A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute predicts that colorectal cancer incidence rates will rise over the next three decades, particularly among US Whites. However, the disparity between US Blacks and Whites is predicted to persist, with a higher incidence rate among US Blacks. The study, led by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), suggests that improved prevention programmes, including early detection, may reduce the future disease burden and decrease the disparity between US Blacks and Whites.

The Ministry of Health of Nepal has launched a new Kathmandu population-based cancer registry to collect essential data on nearly 3 million inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley. Working closely with the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), the IARC Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR) is providing technical guidance through its capacity-building programme. The IARC Mumbai Regional Hub for Cancer Registration at the Tata Memorial Centre recently hosted a week-long training course for a team of five participants from Nepal, and workshops were held in Kathmandu to review plans and seek input from key stakeholders for the registry.

A postdoctoral opportunity is available immediately within the Group to work on an integrated approach to combine self-reported and biomarker estimates of dietary exposure, with the aim of exploring the misclassification inherent in these measurements.
Deadline: 31 March 2018

Cutaneous beta human papillomavirus (HPV) types are suspected to be involved, together with ultraviolet (UV) radiation, in the development of non-melanoma skin cancer, the most common form of human cancer. A new study by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), published today in PLoS Pathogens, used a transgenic mouse model in which the expression of beta HPV38 oncogenes can be modulated in the skin. Their findings support the concept that beta HPV types act only at an initial stage of carcinogenesis, by potentiating the deleterious effects of UV radiation.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is pleased to announce that the IARC Monographs volume on the insecticides dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (lindane) and the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is now available online.

A postdoctoral opportunity is immediately available within the Nutritional Methodology and Biostatistics Group to work on the identification of aetiological factors in the occurrence of multi-morbidity and cancer comorbidity. The postdoctoral scientist will join an innovative and scientifically stimulating environment and will have opportunities to interact and collaborate with colleagues from IARC and its networks.